SHORT-HANDED AND THEN SOME: NYCFC’s Villa, Ring among 9 players missing for KC

New York City FC head coach Patrick Vieira will be doing some mixing and matching when his team meets Sporting Kansas City Wednesday night.

City will be without nine players for the Yankee Stadium encounter, including striker David Villa.

Villa Tuesday underwent medical tests in New York City after he withdrew from the Spanish national team due to irritation to his adductor muscle.

That injury will keep him out of contention for the KC game. The club’s medical team, however, were hopeful that he will be available for Saturday’s home match agaisnt the Portland Timbers.

Midfielder Alex Ring has also returned to the club as a precautionary measure after sustaining a toe injury while on international duty, which ruled him out of Finland’s game against Kosovo Tuesday.

Ring will be assessed by the medical team.

“When you’re missing players it gives opportunities to others to express themselves and some players who haven’t played for quite a long time will have a chance to start the game,” Vieira said.

“They will have to show that they deserve to play more often. They will have to take the opportunity to show how good they are and to show they’ve been working really well That will be good because what I want is for players to compete and to make it really difficult to choose the starting XI.”

Those two internationals weren’t the only NYCFC players sidelined. Forward Miguel Camargo is out for the season, while defenders Maxime Chanot, Ronald Matarrita and Ethan White and midfielder Mikey Lopez still were recovering from their injuries.

Midfielder Yangel Herrera is likely to start for Venezuela against Argentina in Tuesday night’s World Cup qualfiier Buenos Aires, while forward Rodney Wallace is with Costa Rica for its qualifier vs. Mexico. Besides, he is suspended game for his next game because of yellow card accumulation after picking up his fifth caution of the season against Red Bulls.